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LAWRENCE  J.  GUTTER 

Collection  of  Chicogoono 

THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   ILLINOIS 
AT  CHICAGO 


The  University  Library 


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http://www.archive.org/details/hhportershortautOOport 


H.  H.  PORTER 
A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


H.  H.  PORTER 


A   SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


WRITTEN  FOR  HIS  CHILDREN 
AND  GRANDCHILDREN 


CHICAGO 

PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

1915 


Copyright,  1915 
H  .  H.  PORTER,  Jr. 


INTRODUCTION 

THIS  autobiography  was  written  by  Mr. 
Porter  in  the  Summer  of  1904  with  the 
intention  of  having  a  brief  history  of  his  life  and 
work  for  his  family  and  grandchildren.  It  was 
not  his  idea  that  it  should  be  printed. 

Mr.  Porter's  life  work  was  so  interwoven  with 
the  development  of  Chicago  and  the  near  North- 
west, and  this  narrative  gives  such  an  interesting 
and  clear  idea  of  the  conditions  existing  and 
of  the  marvelous  growth  of  this  country  during 
his  Hfetime,  that  it  has  been  decided  to  print  the 
autobiography  in  a  small  edition  for  his  close 
friends  and  associates. 


H.  H.  PORTER 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

MY  FATHER,  Rufus  King  Porter,  was  born  in  Bidde- 
ford,  Maine,  in  the  year  1794.  He  was  graduated 
from  Bowdoin  College  about  18 13,  and  afterwards  studied  law 
in  Portland,  Maine.  When  still  a  young  man  he  went  to 
Machias,  Washington  County,  Maine,  and  began  the  practice 
of  law.  There  he  continued  to  reside  and  follow  his  profession 
until  his  death,  in  1856,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two  years. 

My  father  was  twice  married.  The  maiden  name  of  his 
first  wife  was  Emma  J.  Cooper.  There  were  four  children  of 
this  marriage,  whose  names,  in  the  order  of  their  birth,  were 
Emma  Jane,  Charles  Wendell,  John  Cooper,  and  Caroline 
Elisabeth.  Emma  died  unmarried  in  July,  1866;  Charles  is 
now  living  in  Washington,  D.  C,  John  in  St.  Louis,  and 
Caroline  in  Portland,  Maine. 

My  father  was  left  a  widower  about  the  year  1827,  and 
his  marriage  with  my  mother  took  place  in  1829. 

My  mother's  maiden  name  was  Lucy  Lee  Hedge.  She 
was  born  in  the  year  1798,  at  East  Dennis,  Massachusetts, 
and  had  been  living  for  some  years  previous  to  her  marriage 
in  the  family  of  her  uncle,  Silas  Lee,  at  Wiscasset,  Maine.  She 
died  in  1862,  at  Machias,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four  years,  and 
there  both  she  and  my  father  are  buried. 

There  were  four  children  by  this  marriage,  of  whom  I  was 
the  second.  The  eldest,  Silas  Lee,  died  in  1871,  in  New  York 
City,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven  years.  The  third  child  was 
George  Thatcher,  who  died  in  1876,  in  camp  near  Calais, 
Maine,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  years,  and  the  youngest, 
William  Rufus,  now  lives  in  Batavia,  Illinois. 

I  was  born  in  Machias,  on  the  7th  day  of  December,  1835, 
and   spent   my  boyhood   years   there,  attending  the   public 


lo  H.  H.  PORTER 

schools  and  the  East  Machias  Academy.  Afterwards  I  was 
for  a  short  time  a  student  at  PhiUips  Academy,  in  Andover, 
Massachusetts. 

When  between  fifteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  not  wishing 
to  go  to  school  longer,  with  my  father's  consent  I  started  out 
in  the  world  to  earn  my  own  living,  going  first  to  Eastport, 
Maine,  and  becoming  a  clerk  for  the  firm  of  Stevens  &  Pea- 
body,  afterwards  Peabody  &  Cummings.  This  firm  kept  a 
general  country  store,  having  its  principal  trade  with  the 
people  of  Eastport  and  the  surrounding  country  and  the  fisher- 
men of  the  Island  of  Campo  Bello. 

My  salary  during  the  first  year  at  Eastport  was  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  dollars,  from  which  I  clothed  myself, 
paid  my  board  and  lived  very  comfortably,  saving  a  few  dollars. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  second  year  my  compensation  was 
raised  to  the  rate  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  year, 
but  I  remained  only  a  few  months. 

I  had  a  strong  desire  to  go  to  California.  My  plan  was 
to  go  to  St.  Louis  and  from  there  work  my  passage  across  the 
continent  by  driving  a  team  in  one  of  the  numerous  emigration 
trains  at  that  time  crossing  the  plains. 

This  emigration  was  then  carried  on  in  convoys.  Various 
groups,  each  with  its  own  independent  outfit,  would  travel 
together  for  mutual  assistance  and  protection  against  the 
Indians.  Each  outfit  generally  consisted  of  two  wagons  which 
were  fastened  together  by  lashing  the  pole  of  the  second  under 
the  body  of  the  first,  and  these  were  hauled  either  by  horses, 
mules,  or  oxen,  the  teams  usually  consisting  of  four,  six,  eight, 
or  ten  animals.  This  method  enabled  them,  when  from  any 
cause  it  became  necessary,  to  lighten  the  load  by  simply 
separating  the  wagons,  to  haul  one  over  the  rough  places  and 
then  to  go  back  and  haul  the  other,  coupling  them  together 
again  where  the  country  would  permit,  and  going  on. 

Having  determined  to  go  west  I  went  to  Machias  to  bid  my 
family  farewell.  The  day  before  I  was  to  take  my  departure 
my  father  said  to  me  that  he  had  some  years  before  seriously 
thought  of  moving  west  to  Illinois,  where  some  acquaintances 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  ii 

and  connections  of  the  family  were  living.  Taking  a  map  he 
pointed  out  to  me  the  city  of  Chicago,  of  which  I  had,  of  course, 
before  known,  dwelling  upon  its  location  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  expressing  his  opinion  that  it  was  destined  to 
become  a  very  important  city.  He  suggested  that  I  go  through 
Chicago  on  my  way  to  St.  Louis  and,  in  case  I  should  find 
employment  there,  accept  it  and  try  it.  Before  starting  he 
gave  me  eighty  dollars  in  money  and  two  checks  on  a  Boston 
bank  for  twenty-five  dollars  each.  With  this  capital,  and 
determined  to  act  upon  his  suggestion,  I  started  westward. 

I  went  first  to  Boston,  where  I  spent  a  day  or  two  at  the 
home  of  the  Reverend  Edward  Beecher,  a  connection  of  the 
family,  on  Hull  Street. 

My  next  destination  was  New  York,  where  I  stayed  two  or 
three  days,  stopping  at  the  Astor  House.  A  place  of  great 
interest  in  New  York  at  that  time  was  the  Crystal  Palace,  then 
considered  a  World's  Fair,  located  on  Sixth  Avenue  between 
Fortieth  and  Forty-second  streets,  behind  the  New  York 
Reservoir  (lately  torn  down  to  provide  a  place  for  the  Lenox- 
Tilden  Library  now  being  erected).  It  looks  now  like  a  very 
small  place  for  such  an  exhibition,  but  it  looked  very  large 
then.  I  went  to  see  the  Crystal  Palace,  starting  from  the 
Astor  House  and  traveling  more  than  three  miles  by  horse-car 
to  get  there.  There  was  hardly  a  building  north  of  Madison 
Square.  That  whole  section  of  New  York,  now  so  crowded, 
consisted,  as  I  remember  it,  of  rugged  rocks  with  but  a  few 
streets  laid  out  among  them. 

From  New  York  I  traveled  by  steamboat  to  Albany,  thence 
by  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  to  Buffalo  (there  were  no 
sleeping  cars  at  that  time),  thence  by  steamboat  to  Detroit, 
and  thence  over  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  to  Chicago. 
This  railroad  had  been  opened  through  at  about  that  time 
and  terminated  in  Chicago  on  the  prairie  near  the  lake  shore 
at  about  Sixteenth  Street.  While  on  the  way  from  Detroit 
to  Chicago  I  remember  seeing  wild  deer  from  the  train  window. 
This  was  in  September,  1853. 

The  population  of  Chicago  at  that  time  was  perhaps  twenty- 


12  H.  H.  PORTER 

five  or  thirty  thousand.  The  city  was  principally  constructed 
of  wooden  balloon-framed  buildings,  with  a  few  good  brick 
ones.  Lake  Street,  Clark  Street,  and  several  other  streets 
were  planked  for  about  half  a  mile,  but  few,  if  any,  of  the 
others  were.  Those  not  planked  were  almost  impassable  in 
wet  weather  from  the  depth  of  the  prairie  mud,  there  being 
practically  no  sewerage.  Each  division  of  the  city  had  a  brick 
public  market  with  a  hall  over  it.  The  one  on  the  South  Side 
was  located  on  State  Street  between  Randolph  and  Lake 
streets;  that  on  the  West  Side  on  Randolph  Street;  and  the 
one  on  the  North  Side  was  between  North  Water  Street,  Kinzie 
Street,  Clark  Street,  and  Wells  Street.  In  these  halls  above 
the  markets  all  public  meetings  were  held.  Michigan  Avenue 
had  not  been  opened  from  Water  Street  to  the  river,  and  the 
old  blockhouse  of  the  fort  was  still  in  existence.  There  were 
no  pier  bridges  in  the  river,  and  there  was  no  bridge  of  any  kind 
between  Clark  Street  and  the  lake.  The  bridges  were  all  what 
were  known  as  "float-draws";  that  is,  a  large  box  floated  one 
end  of  the  draw  part  and  the  other  was  connected  to  a  pile 
bridge  approach.  They  were  opened  and  closed  by  means  of  a 
windlass  on  the  bridge  and  a  chain  connecting  it  with  the 
shore,  this  chain  winding  around  the  windlass  to  open  or  close 
the  bridge.  There  were  no  tugs  in  the  river,  and  each  vessel 
(of  course  they  were  small)  coming  into  port  came  in  under  her 
own  sail  as  far  as  she  could  and  then  was  warped  by  piles 
through  the  bridges  to  the  dock  where  she  laid  up.  The  river 
was  but  Httle  docked  south  of  Randolph  Street,  and  even  east 
of  Clark  Street  along  much  of  its  course  the  natural  banks 
remained  undisturbed. 

Chicago  had  then  just  finished  a  system  of  waterworks 
which,  it  was  thought,  would  last  for  generations.  This  system 
consisted  of  two  small  pumping  engines:  one  located  at  the 
corner  of  Chicago  Avenue  and  what  is  now  Lincoln  Park  Boule- 
vard, and  the  other  on  the  South  Side,  at  the  corner  of  La  Salle 
and  Adams  streets,  where  the  Rookery  Building  now  stands. 
Here  there  was  a  large  elevated  iron  tank  holding  probably  ten 
or  twenty  times  as  much  as  an  ordinary  railroad  water-tank. 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  13 

There  were  similar  tanks  on  the  North  and  West  sides.  These 
tanks  were  used  as  reservoirs,  from  which  the  water  was 
distributed  over  the  city.  After  the  fire  of  1871,  the  tank  on 
the  South  Side  was,  as  I  remember,  used  as  a  Hbrary  room  for 
the  Chicago  PubHc  Library.  These  tanks  were  later  torn 
down,  after  the  present  system  of  supplying  water  was  put  in 
operation. 

The  level  of  the  streets  from  the  river  south  to  Monroe 
Street  was  at  that  time  from  five  to  twelve  feet  lower  than  the 
present  grade,  the  filling  in  of  the  streets  and  the  elevation  of 
the  buildings  along  them  having  been  begun  some  years  before 
the  Chicago  fire.  The  buildings  were  raised  by  lifting  them 
with  jack-screws,  and  the  first  company  to  carry  on  this  work 
was  the  firm  of  Moore  &  Pullman,  in  which  George  M.  Pullman, 
afterwards  so  closely  identified  with  the  sleeping  cars  of  the 
country,  was  a  partner.  It  was  at  this  work  that  Mr.  Pull- 
man made  his  start  in  Chicago.  The  buildings  along  any  given 
street  were  not  raised  systematically,  but  rather  according 
to  the  convenience  or  ability  of  their  owners,  so  that  the  side- 
walk presented  a  curiously  uneven  appearance,  and  a  person 
walking  along  it  would  have  to  walk  first  on  the  old  level  and 
then  on  the  new,  constantly  cHmbing  up  and  down  steps  to 
get  from  one  to  the  other. 

On  my  arrival  in  Chicago  I  necessarily  began  seeking  em- 
ployment at  once.  I  had  letters  to  one  or  two  persons  there 
who  offered  to  do  what  they  could  to  help  me  find  a  situation, 
but  there  was  not  much  need  for  such  help,  as  Chicago  was 
very  active  and  there  seemed  to  be  plenty  of  room  for  young 
men  who  wanted  to  work. 

My  first  offer  was  of  a  clerkship  in  a  store  at  Belvidere. 
I  went  to  that  place  to  see  about  it,  but  had  been  already  so 
deeply  impressed  with  the  opportunities  in  Chicago  that  I 
wanted  to  find  something  there.  On  my  return  the  next  day 
I  was  offered  a  position  as  a  junior  clerk  in  the  general  office  of 
the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad,  of  which  John  B.  Turner 
of  Chicago  was  then  president.  I  accepted  this  position,  at  a  sal- 
ary of  four  hundred  dollars  per  year,  and  was  perfectly  satisfied. 


14  H.  H.  PORTER 

I  secured  board  in  a  large  old  wooden  house  on  Randolph 
Street,  just  east  of  the  corner  of  State  Street,  and  there  lived 
for  several  months;  and  afterwards  at  various  boarding  houses 
on  both  the  North  and  South  sides.  Later  I  joined  some  other 
young  men  in  renting  rooms  on  La  Salle  Street  between  Lake 
Street  and  South  Water  Street.  The  employer  of  one  of  my 
room-mates  then  put  up  a  building  on  the  corner  of  Clark 
Street  between  South  Water  Street  and  the  river,  and  we  had 
what  we  thought  were  fine  rooms  there.  By  this  time  I  was 
getting  a  salary  of  about  twelve  hundred  dollars  per  year,  and 
being  continually  moving  about  on  the  Galena  &  Chicago 
Union  Railroad,  by  which  I  was  still  employed,  I  secured  day- 
board  at  the  Briggs  House,  where  they  kindly  charged  me  but 
a  day  for  each  three  meals  actually  taken,  I  continuing  to  sleep 
in  my  room  on  South  Water  Street.  This  hotel  was  located 
at  the  corner  of  Randolph  Street  and  what  is  now  Fifth  Avenue 
and  was  kept  by  the  firm  of  Floyd  &  French.  Later  I  boarded 
for  some  years  at  the  Richmond  Hotel,  at  the  corner  of  South 
Water  Street  and  Michigan  Avenue,  where  I  had  for  a  fellow 
boarder,  during  his  visit  in  Chicago,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
(Edward  VH).  After  the  proprietors  of  this  hotel  failed  I 
moved  to  the  Tremont  House,  where  I  was  living  when  I  was 
married. 

When  I  arrived  at  Chicago  there  were  but  two  railroads 
running  west  from  there;  namely,  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island 
Railroad,  building  very  rapidly  for  the  times  and  destined  for 
Rock  Island,  Illinois,  and  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Rail- 
road, destined  for  Galena,  Illinois.  This  latter  railroad  had 
been  constructed  as  far  as  Freeport.  It  had  been  started  some 
four  or  five  years  before  and  built  from  Chicago  to  Turner 
Junction  (now  West  Chicago),  a  distance  of  about  thirty  miles. 
Its  construction  as  far  as  Elgin  was  of  wooden  timbers  on  which 
were  spiked  what  were  known  as  strap  rails,  being  flat  iron 
bars  about  two  and  one-half  inches  wide  and  three-quarters  to 
seven-eighths  of  an  inch  thick:  and  on  this  crude  track  the 
trains  moved.  Even  these  rails  were  second-hand,  having 
previously  been  used  between  Rochester  and  Niagara  Falls, 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  15 

on  part  of  what  is  now  the  New  York  Central  Railroad. 
From  Elgin  to  Rockford  the  track  was  laid  with  T  rails  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  feet  in  length  each,  and  of  the  weight  of 
about  thirty-five  pounds  to  the  yard.  The  first  engines  had 
one  pair  of  drivers  each  and  in  these  days  would  look  very 
crude,  but  this  railroad  was  nevertheless  regarded  by  Chicago's 
citizens  with  great  pride;  and  in  fact  it  was  so  great  an  improve- 
ment on  stages  and  teams  as  a  means  of  connecting  the  coun- 
try with  the  city  that  everybody  had  just  cause  to  be  pleased. 
From  the  start  the  road  proved  a  very  profitable  investment 
for  its  stockholders. 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  was  then  in  process  of  con- 
struction between  Cairo  and  Dunleith,  opposite  Dubuque, 
with  a  branch  from  Centralia  (near  the  center  of  the  state)  to 
Chicago.  This  railroad  was,  I  think,  the  first  to  benefit  by 
the  land  grants  given  by  the  Federal  Government  to  the  states 
to  aid  in  railroad  construction.  It  was  being  built  in  sections, 
one  of  which  was  from  Amboy  through  Freeport  to  Dunleith. 
The  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  had  agreed  to  stop 
its  construction  at  Freeport  and  to  use  this  Illinois  Central 
section  jointly  from  Freeport  to  the  Mississippi  River. 

In  various  capacities  I  remained  in  the  employ  of  the 
Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  until  about  1859,  some  of 
the  positions  I  held  being  claim  agent,  paymaster,  and  general 
ticket  agent.  While  in  the  latter  position  I  had  printed  the  first 
passenger  tickets  that  were  used  west  of  Chicago.  With  the 
exception  of  one  or  two  important  stations,  it  had  always  been 
the  custom  for  the  conductors  to  collect  the  fares.  Such  a 
thing  as  a  coupon  ticket  had  never  been  used  west  of  Chicago. 

While  I  was  with  this  railroad  the  question  of  locomotive 
fuel  became  serious.  Leading  railroad  men  of  the  West  began 
to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  finding  some  substitute  for  wood 
and  to  investigate  the  possibility  of  using  Illinois  coal,  known 
to  exist  in  some  parts  of  the  state.  About  1856,  President 
Turner  of  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  was  so  strongly 
impressed  with  this  need  that  he  made  a  contract  with  a 
Philadelphia  concern  to  build  a  locomotive  guaranteed  to  burn 


i6  H.  H.  PORTER 

Illinois  coal.  If  successful,  he  was  to  buy  it  at  an  agreed  price, 
otherwise  he  need  not  take  it.  The  general  superintendent 
and  the  master  mechanic  of  this  railroad  were  both  absolutely 
certain  that  Illinois  coal  could  never  be  successfully  burned  in 
a  railroad  locomotive.  This  locomotive  was  brought  to 
Chicago,  some  Illinois  coal  secured  for  it,  and  the  engine  fired 
up  and  started.  President  Turner,  the  general  superintendent, 
the  master  mechanic,  a  representative  of  the  builders,  and 
myself  rode  on  it  from  Chicago  to  a  station  then  known  as 
Oak  Ridge  (now  Oak  Park),  about  eight  miles  west,  burning 
out  two  grate  bars  on  the  way.  We  left  the  engine  there  on  a 
sidetrack  and  came  home  with  the  general  superintendent  and 
the  master  mechanic,  who  were  perfectly  delighted  because 
they  had  proved  that  they  were  right.  This  locomotive  was 
afterwards  purchased  at  a  reduced  price  and  altered  to  a  wood- 
burner.  Its  boiler  stood  so  high  that  it  was  always  out  of 
balance  and  it  was  probably  in  the  ditch  more  times  during  its 
life  than  any  engine  the  company  ever  owned.  Every  engineer 
disHked  to  run  it,  and  I  do  not  remember  that  it  ever  got  over 
the  road  on  time.  Wood-burning  locomotives  are  now  no 
greater  curiosity  than  coal-burners  were  until  1862  or  there- 
abouts. 

The  Summer  of  1854  was  known  as  the  cholera  season. 
Emigration  into  the  country  beyond  Chicago  was  very  active. 
Deaths  from  cholera  among  the  citizens  of  Chicago  were  of 
daily  occurrence,  and  among  the  emigrants  in  the  stations  and 
on  the  trains  not  uncommon.  This  demoraHzed  very  much 
all  the  employees  of  the  railroad,  so  that  it  was  often  almost 
impossible  to  find  trainmen  enough  to  run  even  the  passenger 
trains.  Being  young  and  confident,  I  never  seemed  to  feel  that 
cholera  would  attack  me.  I  was  always  ready  for  work,  and 
it  was  the  work  I  then  did,  not  only  in  the  office  but  as  con- 
ductor of  trains  when  none  other  could  be  found,  that,  I  think, 
gave  me  a  start  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  confidence  of  Captain 
Turner,  the  president,  and  later  gave  me  my  promotions.  One 
incident  will  show  my  lack  of  fear  of  cholera:  At  the  beginning 
of  the  cholera  excitement  my  mother  specially  requested  that 


H.  H.  Porter 
i860 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  17 

I  write  her  a  line  daily  that  she  might  know  I  was  well.  In 
order  to  keep  her  mind  easy,  the  next  Sunday  I  wrote  her 
thirty  letters,  dating  them  consecutively  from  that  day,  no  one 
of  them  exceeding  three  lines  and  in  each  reporting  myself 
well.  These  I  sealed,  addressed,  stamped,  and  put  in  a  drawer 
from  which  the  porter  who  carried  the  letters  to  the  post-office 
each  day  took  the  top  one  and  mailed  it,  I  being  much  of  the 
time  out  on  the  road.  I  continued  well  and  her  mind  remained 
easy. 

The  years  1855  and  1856  were  boom  years.  Chicago  was 
growing  very  fast  and  emigration  was  going  west  with  great 
rapidity.  New  railroads  were  being  promoted  everywhere 
and  much  construction  was  already  under  way.  In  1857  the 
panic  struck;  everything  stopped.  The  population  of  Chicago 
began  to  recede.  Many  of  the  banks  and  merchants  failed. 
Real  estate  was  dead  and  if  sold  at  all  did  not  bring  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  1856  prices.  The  whole  of  the  United 
States  was  stagnated  and  universal  bankruptcy  threatened. 
The  older  conservative  people  were  sure  that  the  cause  of  this 
panic  was  railroad  building  and  that  we  had  too  much  already 
and  should  not  want  more  during  that  generation,  if  ever. 

The  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  had  been  extended 
from  Turner  Junction  to  the  Mississippi  River  at  Fulton, 
Illinois,  and  President  Turner  wanted  it  extended  farther  west. 
There  was  strong  opposition  to  this,  which  resulted  in  a  con- 
test among  the  stockholders  for  control  at  the  annual  election 
of  1859.  The  opposition  was  successful  and  Mr.  Turner  was 
defeated  for  the  presidency,  Walter  L.  Newberry  being  elected 
in  his  place.     Mr.  Turner  was  re-elected  president  in  1864. 

The  day  of  Lincoln's  nomination  in  Chicago  for  the  Presi- 
dency I  started  for  Havana.  Some  associates  and  myself  had 
an  agent  there  who  had  secured  for  us  the  promise  of  a  con- 
tract for  building  about  fourteen  miles  of  horse  railroad,  there 
being  none  in  the  city.  My  object  in  going  to  Havana  was  to 
close  this  contract.  At  that  time  they  were  just  beginning  to 
improve  Havana,  and  important  contracts  for  its  first  paving 
had  been  let. 


i8  H.  H.  PORTER 

I  went  to  New  Orleans  by  rail,  thence  to  Havana  by  the 
steamboat  line  from  New  Orleans  to  New  York,  which  touched 
at  Havana,  intending  to  return  the  same  way.  Our  steamer 
carried  the  first  news  of  the  nomination  of  Lincoln  and  I  prob- 
ably carried  it  first  to  the  hotel  where  I  stopped.  There  were 
at  this  hotel  several  Southern  gentlemen  who  were  intensely 
excited  on  hearing  of  the  nomination,  and  were  sure  that  it 
meant  war,  and  that  the  South  was  ready  for  it.  They  were 
bitter  toward  the  North,  and  one  of  them  began  abusing  me  as 
a  Northerner.  Naturally  I  took  the  Northern  side  and  told 
them  that,  with  the  population  and  wealth  of  the  North,  they 
would  be  whipped.  This  suggested  to  one  of  the  gentlemen  his 
ability  to  whip  me.  By  this  time  his  friends  saw  the  position, 
and  they  showed  him  that  I  was  a  young  man  from  the  North 
who  had  simply  brought  them  the  news,  and  told  him  I  was  to 
be  treated  as  a  gentleman.  Then  the  whole  matter  quieted 
down.  Two  of  those  present  were  afterwards  generals  in  the 
Southern  army  and  both  were  killed  in  battle. 

I  was  in  Havana  two  or  three  weeks.  My  first  night  there 
I  pushed  up  the  window,  pulled  my  bed  near  it,  retired,  and 
slept  soundly.  The  next  day  I  found  the  landlord  very  much 
disturbed  at  my  action,  saying  that  I  would  be  dead  with 
yellow  fever  in  two  or  three  days.  After  that  I  did  as  everyone 
else  did  —  slept  in  a  room  with  everything  closed  to  avoid  the 
night  air. 

About  the  time  I  was  ready  to  leave  Havana  the  old  steamer 
"Moses  Taylor,"  famiharly  known  as  the  "RoUing  Moses," 
arrived  from  New  Orleans  on  her  way  to  New  York  and  brought 
the  news  that  the  steamer  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans  had 
broken  down  and  there  would  be  none  from  Havana  to  New 
Orleans  until  the  "RolHng  Moses"  should  return.  Entering 
and  leaving  Havana  each  required  a  passport  at  that  time.  I 
had  no  time  to  get  one  for  leaving  and  catch  the  steamer,  and 
as  I  could  not  wait  I  hired  a  volante,  took  my  baggage  to  the 
dock,  and  hired  a  boatman  to  row  me  to  the  steamer,  where  I 
climbed  aboard  and  practically  hid  in  the  cabin  until  we  had 
passed  some  distance  beyond  Morro  Castle.     Then  I  hunted 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  19 

up  the  purser  in  order  to  pay  my  fare.  He  asked  for  my  pass- 
port. I  hadn't  any.  He  called  the  captain,  who  was  very 
angry.  I  told  him  I  would  be  angry  too,  in  his  place,  but  from 
my  point  of  view  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  go  on  his  steamer. 
I  produced  my  railroad  passes  to  show  him  where  I  came  from, 
smoothed  things  over,  and  paid  my  fare.  The  nomination  of 
Lincoln  and  the  results  therefrom  made  this  Cuban  trip  a 
failure. 

Not  long  after  my  return  I  gave  up  my  position  with  the 
Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad.  Soon  after  this  I  was 
employed  to  make  an  examination  of  the  accounts  of  the  station 
agent  in  Chicago  of  the  Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana 
Railroad.  This  railroad  then  extended  from  Chicago  to  Tole- 
do, with  a  branch  from  Adrian  to  Jackson,  another  from 
Adrian  to  Monroe,  a  line  from  Detroit  to  Toledo,  and  a  second 
road  from  Elkhart  to  Toledo,  a  total  mileage  of  about  five 
hundred  miles.  During  this  examination  the  agent,  who 
proved  to  be  a  defaulter,  ran  away,  and  in  this  emergency  I 
became  acting  station  agent.  The  work  was  performed  so 
satisfactorily  that  I  was  appointed  agent,  and  later  I  was 
appointed  general  freight  agent.  I  continued  in  that  position 
for  about  two  years  when,  on  the  death  of  the  general  superin- 
tendent, I  succeeded  to  his  position,  being,  so  far  as  I  know, 
the  then  youngest  general  superintendent  of  an  important 
railroad  in  the  United  States.  This  position  I  held  for  about 
two  years.  I  was  either  general  freight  agent  or  general 
superintendent  of  this  railroad  during  the  whole  War  of  the 
Rebellion. 

The  Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana  Railroad  was 
in  its  early  history  very  successful,  its  stock  and  bonds  selling 
very  high;  but  in  the  panic  of  1857  it  became  bankrupt  and 
its  bonds  sold  at  less  than  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar,  its  guar- 
anteed stock  at  about  ten  dollars,  and  its  common  stock  at 
about  five  dollars  per  share.  At  this  time  such  a  thing  as  a 
receiver  or  a  reorganization  of  a  railroad  was  unknown.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  transportation  be- 
came very  active,  so  that  within  three  or  four  years  this  rail- 


20  H.  H.  PORTER 

road  restored  itself  to  solvency  and  its  stock  rose  above  par. 
A  share  of  that  common  stock,  with  its  accumulated  dividends, 
would  now  be  represented  by  stock  in  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michi- 
gan Southern  Railway,  having  a  market  value  of  not  less,  I 
think,  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

The  passenger  depot  of  the  Michigan  Southern  &  Northern 
Indiana  Railroad  was  then,  as  now,  used  jointly  with  the 
Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad  and  stood  on  part  of  the  land 
occupied  by  the  present  depot.  The  block  north  of  it,  where 
the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade  now  stands,  also  belonged  jointly 
to  these  two  railroads  and  had  on  it  two  temporary  tracks  for 
standing  cars,  being  otherwise  covered  with  trees.  La  Salle 
Street  ended  north  of  Jackson  Street.  The  depot  was  a  small 
wooden  affair,  with  ordinary  waiting  rooms  and  a  small  bag- 
gage room,  no  sheds  to  cover  the  cars,  and  no  pavements  in 
the  streets  surrounding  it.  Since  that  time  there  have  been 
three  depots  built  on  this  same  site,  each  of  which  at  the  time 
of  its  construction  seemed  so  large  and  grand  that  no  new  one 
would  be  required  for  the  next  hundred  years.  During  my 
connection  with  the  Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana 
Railroad,  it  came  into  the  city  from  Twenty-second  Street  to 
Twelfth  Street  on  the  surface  of  Clark  Street,  and  from  Twelfth 
Street  to  the  depot  on  part  of  the  present  right  of  way.  There 
was  but  one  track  for  both  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  and  the 
Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana  railroads  between 
their  junction  at  Englewood  and  Chicago,  and  neither  railroad 
had  any  double  track.  The  main  shops  of  the  Michigan 
Southern  &  Northern  Indiana  Railroad  were  at  Polk  Street, 
and  those  of  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad  were  on  the 
east  side  of  Clark  Street  just  south  of  Twelfth  Street.  The 
freight  stations  of  both  railroads  were  on  Clark  Street  south 
of  Twelfth  Street. 

When  I  was  first  connected  with  the  Michigan  Southern  & 
Northern  Indiana  Railroad,  it  earned  about  three  thousand 
dollars  per  year  per  mile  of  railroad.  The  fares  for  passengers 
were  about  what  they  are  now  and  the  rate  for  freight  per  ton 
per  mile  averaged  three  cents,  while  now  it  is  about  six  mills. 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  21 

The  earnings  of  the  railroad  now  are  more  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars  per  mile. 

About  1 861  I  became  interested  in  the  stock  yards  at 
Twenty-second  Street.  There  were  three  stock  yards  in 
Chicago,  one  at  Twenty-ninth  Street  and  Cottage  Grove 
Avenue  on  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad,  one  on  the  West 
Side  about  Eighteenth  Street  on  the  line  of  the  Ft.  Wayne 
Railroad,  and  the  one  above  referred  to  at  Twenty-second 
Street  on  the  lines  of  the  Michigan  Southern  and  Chicago  & 
Rock  Island  railroads.  All  the  Hve  stock  coming  to  Chicago 
was  delivered  to  one  or  another  of  these  three  yards.  These 
yards  were  very  crude  and  little  was  done  for  the  care  of 
the  animals  or  the  comfort  of  the  customers,  but  they  were 
very  profitable,  so  much  so  that  some  of  the  western  rail- 
roads decided  to  build  their  own  yards.  Had  this  been  done 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  stock  business  was  then  handled, 
it  would  have  been  very  expensive  to  the  railroads  carry- 
ing stock  east.  Switching  cars  to  the  various  yards  was 
expensive  as  it  was,  and  any  additional  ones  would  have 
increased  this  cost.  Under  these  conditions  the  railroads 
got  together  and  decided  to  build  the  present  Union  Stock 
Yards. 

The  Union  Stock  Yards  &  Transit  Company  was  organized 
on  the  13th  of  February,  1865.  The  amount  subscribed  by  the 
railroads  for  this  undertaking  aggregated  one  million  dollars. 
When  finished,  the  yards  cost  about  one  million  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  the  additional  four  hundred  thousand  being 
borrowed  from  the  Connecticut  Mutual  Insurance  Company. 
From  their  inception  these  yards  were  very  profitable,  and 
within  a  year  or  two  this  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
paid  out  of  earnings,  after  which  the  railroads  began  to  receive 
dividends  on  their  stock;  and  singularly  enough,  every  rail- 
road sold  its  stock  as  soon  as  it  could  get  cost  or  a  little  more. 
For  the  sum  of  little  more  than  one  million  dollars  the  railroads 
parted  with  their  ownership  in  the  yards,  the  value  of  which, 
together  with  the  dividends  that  have  been  paid,  must  now  be 
more  than  fifty  million  dollars,  and  much  of  this  profit  the 


22  H.  H.  PORTER 

railroads  themselves  have  paid  to  these  stock  yards  for  the  use 
of  the  tracks  built  out  of  their  earnings. 

On  December  5,  1864,  I  was  married  to  Eliza  T.  French, 
the  daughter  of  George  H.  French  of  Chicago.  We  lived  at  the 
Tremont  House  until  I  resigned  my  connection  with  the 
Michigan  Southern  &  Northern  Indiana  Railroad  in  October, 
1865. 

In  connection  with  some  others  I  had  become  interested 
in  an  agricultural  implement  company  at  Syracuse,  New  York, 
where  we  built  large  shops;  and  while  not  intending  to  devote 
my  time  to  that  industry,  in  1865,  being  then  at  leisure,  my  wife 
and  I  went  to  Syracuse  and  spent  the  year  there.  The  venture 
proved  unprofitable  and  in  the  Autumn  of  1866  we  returned  to 
Chicago. 

Soon  after  this  I  went  into  the  lumber  business  in  partner- 
ship with  Jesse  Spalding  of  Chicago,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Spalding  &  Porter,  buying  the  interest  of  his  partner,  Mr. 
Wells.  The  firm  owned  large  lumber  interests  at  Menekaune, 
Wisconsin,  and  at  Cedar  River,  Michigan,  and  had  a  large 
lumber  yard  in  Chicago.  This  business  we  later  incorporated 
into  the  Menekaune  Lumber  Company,  and  in  1872  I  sold  my 
interest  to  Philetus  Sawyer  of  Oshkosh,  Wisconsin. 

During  the  year  1870,  Samuel  M.  Nickerson,  president  of 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  and  myself  entered  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  acres  of  government 
lands  containing  pine,  hardwood,  and  some  minerals,  in  the 
upper  peninsula  of  Michigan.  Much  of  the  pine  was  sold  at 
from  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar  per  thousand  feet.  Had  we 
retained  this  until  now  it  could  be  sold  at  from  five  to  seven 
dollars  per  thousand  feet. 

I  became  a  director  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Chicago 
in  1868,  and  of  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad  in  1869. 
At  that  time  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad  ran  from 
Chicago  to  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  with  a  branch  to  Peoria,  Illinois. 
I  continued  in  the  direction  of  that  railroad  and  its  successor, 
the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Railway,  until  1898. 
When  I  resigned  there  had  been  more  than  thirty  deaths  in 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  23 

the  directorate  and  only  one  of  my  original  associates  was  still 
living.  The  year  before  I  became  connected  with  the  Chicago 
&  Rock  Island  Railroad  there  had  been  an  active  controversy 
for  its  control  between  John  F,  Tracy,  then  its  president,  and 
his  friends,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  people  in  control  of  the 
Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  on  the  other.  Mr. 
Tracy's  party  was  successful.  During  the  next  year  the  leader 
of  the  controlling  party  in  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Rail- 
way died  and  the  year  after  that  Mr.  Tracy  and  associates,  of 
whom  I  was  one,  secured  control  of  the  Chicago  &  North  West- 
ern Railway  at  the  annual  election  after  a  very  exciting  con- 
test. Mr.  Tracy  was  elected  president  and  I  became  a  director, 
a  member  of  the  executive  committee,  and  for  a  time  general 
manager.  We  found  that  for  some  years  previous  the  Chicago 
&  North  Western  Railway  had  been  governed  more  by  the 
popular  poHcy  of  dividend  paying  than  by  that  of  improving 
and  protecting  the  property  and  its  territory,  so  that  much 
new  railroad  building  had  to  be  done.  The  railroad  from 
Madison  to  Winona  had  to  be  constructed,  also  the  line  from 
Green  Bay  to  Escanaba,  and  the  railroad  from  Milwaukee  to 
Fond  du  Lac.  These  additions  required  money,  courage,  and 
good  times. 

The  same  year  (1871),  Mr.  Tracy's  health  having  failed, 
he  went  abroad,  so  that  nearly  all  my  attention  was  required 
for  railroad  matters.  Moreover,  I  was  still  an  active  member 
of  the  lumber  firm  of  Spalding  &  Porter.  Then  the  Chicago 
fire  came  upon  us.  At  the  time  of  the  fire  we  were  living  on 
North  La  Salle  Street,  and  in  common  with  all  dwellings  in 
that  section  our  home  was  burned.  Fortunately  for  us,  Mrs. 
Porter's  sister  was  living  in  a  little  town  on  the  Chicago  & 
North  Western  Railway,  about  twelve  miles  from  Chicago,  and 
her  home  provided  us  shelter  in  the  emergency. 

Three  days  later,  while  I  was  very  busy  and  badly  strained 
financially,  as  everyone  was,  in  consequence  of  the  fire,  I 
received  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Spalding,  my  partner  in  Mene- 
kaune,  stating  that  our  sawmill,  store,  boarding  house,  and,  in 
fact,  the  whole  town  had  been  burned  in  a  great  general  forest 


24  H.  H.  PORTER 

fire  during  the  same  two  days  as  the  Chicago  fire,  and  asking 
me  to  send  up  food  and  clothing  of  every  kind  at  once,  as  the 
people  were  destitute  and  suffering.  The  losses  by  this  fire 
in  the  lumber  district  were  not  much  commented  on,  being 
passed  over  unnoticed  owing  to  the  absorbing  interest  awak- 
ened in  the  public  mind  by  the  destruction  of  Chicago.  Never- 
theless, the  loss  of  Hfe  and  real  suffering  caused  by  that  fire 
were,  I  think,  much  greater  than  were  caused  by  the  Chicago 
fire.  Within  a  few  miles  of  our  mills  at  Menekaune  there  were 
more  than  five  hundred  people  burned  to  death.  The  whole 
country  had  been  without  rain  for  some  months  and  there  had 
been  a  constant  high,  hot,  dry  wind,  so  that  little  fires  origi- 
nating in  the  woods  got  beyond  control  and  the  whole  country 
for  many  miles  in  every  direction  was  devastated. 

At  the  time  of  the  Chicago  fire  all  the  bank  buildings  were 
burned  and  business  of  every  kind  was  suspended.  All  the 
banks  that  had  confidence  in  their  vaults  had  placed  in  them 
their  money,  bills  payable,  bills  receivable,  and  record  books; 
and,  as  it  proved,  none  of  these  vaults  or  their  contents  were 
destroyed.  One  of  the  banks,  however,  fearful  lest  its  vaults 
should  be  destroyed,  removed  all  its  valuables  to  Milwaukee. 
Some  others  removed  theirs  to  unburned  districts.  The 
building  owned  and  occupied  by  the  First  National  Bank  at 
the  corner  of  State  and  Washington  streets  was  the  only  one 
built  to  be  fire-proof,  and  while  it  proved  to  be  partially  so, 
yet  the  pulling  out  of  one  of  its  walls  by  the  falling  of  an 
adjoining  building  showed  that  its  supposed  fire-proof  con- 
struction, except  as  to  the  lower  story  and  basement,  did  it  no 
good.  Of  all  the  banks,  the  vaults  of  the  First  National  were 
the  least  affected.  The  heat  of  the  fire  was  so  intense  that 
several  days  had  to  pass  before  it  was  safe  to  open  any  vault  for 
fear  that  the  admission  of  air  would  create  a  fire,  destroying  the 
contents.  The  vaults  of  the  First  National  were  opened  first. 
As  soon  as  this  was  done  the  directors  all  met  at  the  house  of 
S.  W.  Allerton,  one  of  their  number,  and  carefully  investigated 
the  contents  of  the  vault.  We  examined  the  books,  counted 
the  money,  and  analyzed  the  bills  receivable  of  the  bank  to  see 


H.  H.  Porter 
1864 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  25 

whether  it  could  pay  its  depositors,  none  of  us  expecting  any- 
thing more.  On  the  first  day  we  found  enough  bills  receivable 
that  we  believed  good,  together  with  the  money  on  hand  and 
the  deposits  in  banks  of  other  cities,  to  do  it.  Then  each 
director  took  a  list  of  the  bills  receivable  in  the  branch  of  busi- 
ness he  was  most  familiar  with  and  began  an  investigation. 
The  second  day  we  found  enough  good  bills  to  equal  fifty  per 
cent  of  the  par  value  of  the  stock,  and  another  day's  examina- 
tion added  twenty-five  per  cent  more  to  this,  so  that  we  knew 
we  were  solvent.  The  ultimate  result  showed  that  less  was 
lost  than  the  surplus  the  bank  had  at  the  time  of  the  fire. 
Having  satisfied  ourselves  of  the  bank's  solvency,  we  were 
anxious  to  open  again  for  business  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment,  and  a  house  on  Wabash  Avenue  was  rented  for  that 
purpose. 

A  meeting  of  all  the  banks  in  Chicago  was  held  the  next 
Sunday  night  to  arrange  that  all  might  open  on  the  same  day 
and  thereby  help  in  getting  the  business  of  Chicago  again  into 
working  order.  At  that  meeting  there  was  a  great  diversity 
of  opinion  about  the  time  of  opening  and  the  solvency  of 
various  banks.  Some  had  investigated  far  enough  to  be  will- 
ing to  start  again  at  once.  Others  insisted  on  further  waiting. 
Some  had  opened  their  vaults,  examined  the  contents,  and  had 
confidence  to  start.  Others  had  not  yet  opened  their  vaults 
for  fear  the  contents  would  burn  as  soon  as  the  air  should  be 
admitted.  The  books  of  one  important  bank  had  been  burned. 
So  confident  were  the  officers  of  the  First  National  Bank  that 
their  condition  would  prove  to  be  substantially  the  condition 
of  all  the  banks  in  Chicago  that  they  urged  immediate  resump- 
tion of  business,  and  finally  this  was  agreed  to.  During  all 
this  time  since  the  fire  the  people  of  Chicago  had  been  receiving 
not  only  the  world's  sympathy,  but  money  from  friends  and 
creditors;  and  as  the  banks  were  all  out  of  business  and  people 
were  sleeping  around  in  all  sorts  of  places  there  was  no  place 
to  put  this  money  for  safe-keeping.  They  were,  therefore,  more 
anxious  to  have  the  banks  reopen  and  take  their  money  than 
about  the  money  they  already  had  in  them.     The  first  day's 


26  H.  H.  PORTER 

opening  showed  the  wisdom  of  speedy  resumption  by  the  banks, 
for  at  its  close  every  bank  had  larger  deposits  than  it  had  at 
the  time  of  the  fire. 

After  the  destruction  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Nickerson,  the 
president  of  the  First  National  Bank,  rented  a  house  on  Michi- 
gan Avenue  where  my  wife,  our  daughter  (then  our  only  child), 
and  I  lived  with  them  during  the  next  winter.  In  the  spring 
the  two  families,  except  myself,  went  abroad  to  remain  until 
we  could  restore  our  homes,  Mr.  Nickerson  taking  them  and 
returning  soon  after  alone.  They  remained  there  about  two 
years.  The  first  year  I  went  over  on  financial  business  for  the 
Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  and  spent  a  couple  of  weeks 
with  them  in  Belgium  and  Holland.  The  year  after,  I  went 
over  again  and  the  two  families  returned  with  me. 

The  next  year  was  one  of  great  activity,  both  in  the  restora- 
tion of  Chicago  and  in  railroad  building  in  the  Northwest. 
From  the  time  of  the  fire  until  the  panic  of  1873,  we  were  all 
very  busy  restoring  our  properties  and  putting  them  in  condi- 
tion where  they  could  again  earn  money;  and  when  the  panic 
came  upon  us,  I,  in  common  with  nearly  all  enterprising  citi- 
zens, was  carrying  my  maximum  indebtedness  and  the  outlook 
seemed  very  discouraging.  Railroad  stocks  became  almost 
valueless  and  naturally  stockholders  were  disappointed,  and 
in  consequence  there  came  a  material  change  in  the  direction 
of  the  North  Western  Railway.  No  undertakings  of  any  kind 
were  permitted  and  we  found  the  policy  we  had  adopted  greatly 
in  disfavor.  Time,  however,  justified  our  undertakings,  and 
in  the  end  I  think  our  successors  gave  us  due  credit  for  what 
we  had  done,  as  when  the  times  changed  the  stockholders 
realized  the  benefit  of  all  our  work.  There  was  a  hard  struggle, 
but  the  present  value  of  the  North  Western  Railway,  in  my 
judgment,  comes  largely  from  the  construction  then  eflfected. 

I  have  all  my  life  found  that  energetic,  courageous  men, 
believing  in  the  future  of  our  country,  temporarily  lose  the 
confidence  of  the  public,  in  times  of  depression,  from  their  acts 
of  commission,  no  matter  how  wise  and  justifiable  they  seemed 
when  undertaken;  and  other  men,  wise  perhaps  but  conserva- 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  27 

tive  and  pessimistic,  have  in  such  times  much  the  greater  in- 
fluence. Later,  when  times  restore  themselves,  their  timidity- 
has  produced  such  errors  of  omission  that  they,  in  turn,  lose 
pubHc  confidence  from  not  having  improved  opportunities, 
and  the  more  courageous  men  again  come  to  the  front  and  are 
the  real  powers. 

When  the  panic  broke,  public  sentiment  became  so  para- 
lyzed and  the  general  distrust  so  great  that  it  was  impossible 
to  raise  any  money,  as  is  always  the  case  under  such  conditions. 
People  were  failing  everywhere,  banks  and  commercial  houses 
as  well  as  individuals.  There  was  no  market  for  securities  and 
I  found  myself  loaded  with  debts  and  with  no  way  in  which  I 
could  convert  anything  into  money  to  pay  them.  Fortunately 
there  was  at  that  time  a  Federal  bankrupt  law  providing  in 
very  strict  terms  that  any  creditor  taking  from  an  insolvent 
debtor  additional  security  for  an  old  debt  should  lose  his 
entire  claim,  and  further  providing  that  no  one  could  by  enter- 
ing up  judgment  become  a  preferred  creditor,  and  requiring 
that  all  the  property  of  an  insolvent  debtor  be  divided  pro- 
portionately among  all  the  creditors.  By  surrendering  all  his 
property,  anyone  could  go  through  bankruptcy  and  be  re- 
lieved of  all  his  indebtedness.  It  was  this  law  that  saved  me, 
for  I  considered  myself  for  the  time  being  insolvent.  I  was 
unable  to  meet  my  obHgations  as  they  matured,  and  if  all  my 
property  had  been  converted  into  money  at  the  prices  then 
obtainable  it  would  have  been  wholly  insufficient  to  pay  my 
debts.  If  there  had  been  no  bankrupt  law  then  in  force  each 
of  my  individual  creditors  would  have  been  compelled,  in  self- 
protection,  to  push  his  claims  against  me  and  liquidate  them 
out  of  my  property,  which  would  have  been  sacrificed;  and  the 
result  might  have  been  that  only  the  more  diligent  and  ener- 
getic among  these  creditors  would  have  been  satisfied  and  I 
should  have  been  left  without  property  and  still  burdened 
with  large  indebtedness.  They  realized  they  would  be  paid 
but  Httle  in  an  immediate  foreclosure,  but  if  they  gave  me  time 
to  weather  the  storm  I  might  pull  through  all  right  and  they 
would  be  paid  in  full. 


28  H.  H.  PORTER 

During  this  trying  period,  although  I  could  not  pay,  not 
one  of  my  obligations  was  protested.  I  neither  went  through 
bankruptcy  nor  made  an  assignment,  but  I  kept  right  on 
working  hard  and  doing  the  best  I  knew  how  with  the  means 
at  my  command.  I  told  my  creditors  that  I  was  willing  to 
go  through  bankruptcy,  give  them  all  I  had,  and  start 
again  if  they  desired  it;  to  which  they  all  replied  that  I  could 
manage  my  estate  better  than  they  could,  that  they  be- 
lieved I  was  honest  and  would  come  out  all  right,  and  that  it 
would  be  time  enough  for  me  to  discuss  bankruptcy  when 
they  asked  me  to  pay  what  they  knew  could  not  be  paid 
at  that  time.  Of  course,  when  times  changed  and  business 
improved,  values  restored  themselves  and  every  debt  was 
paid. 

When  the  panic  of  1873  commenced  I  immediately  went 
to  New  York.  Brokers  and  bankers  were  failing  every  day 
and  quotations  on  the  Stock  Exchange  were  wild.  Business 
firms,  banks,  and  trust  companies  were  closing,  and  this  condi- 
tion of  affairs  began  to  spread  all  over  the  country.  There 
was  not  an  important  city  or  town  where  depositors  were  not 
running  on  the  banks.  It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  with- 
stand it.  My  experience,  coming  from  the  Chicago  fire,  led 
me  earnestly  to  advocate  the  temporary  closing  of  the  Stock 
Exchange  in  New  York,  thus  to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  the 
wild  sacrifice  of  securities  that  was  taking  place.  Any  banker, 
broker,  or  other  person,  no  matter  what  his  individual  re- 
sponsibility, offering  to  sell  any  conservative  railroad  stock  or 
bond,  whether  he  had  it  or  not,  would  by  his  offer  make  the 
price,  there  being  practically  no  buyers,  and  the  prices  were 
fluctuating  ten  to  twenty-five  points  between  sales.  No 
solvency  could  withstand  this  insanity.  Under  this  pressure 
the  Stock  Exchange  was  closed  and  remained  so  for  several 
days.  At  the  moment  of  its  closing  the  governors  had  in  their 
hands  letters  from  sixty  or  more  brokers  and  bankers  announc- 
ing their  suspension.  This  closing  had  the  effect  of  stopping 
all  business  and  giving  everyone  time  to  rest  and  think,  and 
gave  the  members  time  to  adjust  their  claims  with  each  other, 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  29 

so  that  very  few  of  those  whose  notices  of  failure  had  been 
prepared  ever  failed  at  all. 

The  bankers  then  got  together  and  did  for  the  first  time 
what  they  have  several  times  since  done,  combined  their  cash 
by  issuing  clearing-house  certificates.  This  enabled  cus- 
tomers to  give  checks  on  their  banks  payable  through  the 
clearing  house.  Nearly  everyone  receiving  money  had  money 
to  pay  elsewhere,  and  if  they  had  it  in  a  particular  bank  and 
drew  their  checks  on  that  bank  payable  through  the  clearing 
house,  that  check  had  to  be  deposited  in  some  other  bank  in 
the  city.  This  prevented  any  one  bank  from  increasing  its 
cash  at  the  expense  of  others. 

During  this  time  great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  the 
Federal  Government  for  help.  I  remember  distinctly  that  one 
Sunday  General  Grant,  who  was  then  President,  and  Mr. 
Boutwell,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  came  to  New  York  and 
met  the  bankers,  important  railroad  presidents,  and  other 
business  men  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  for  a  discussion  as  to 
what  should  be  done.  It  was  an  impressive  sight  to  see  General 
Grant  quietly  sitting  in  his  chair  with  Commodore  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt  sitting  in  front  of  him,  pounding  the  President  on 
the  knees  in  an  earnest  effort  to  convince  him  of  what  he. 
Commodore  Vanderbilt,  considered  it  necessary  to  do  to  help 
allay  the  panic,  while  surrounding  these  two  were  the  most 
important  financial  men  in  New  York. 

The  merchants  gathered  in  the  hall  without  were  congratu- 
lating themselves  on  the  panic,  having  the  idea  that  the  reason 
money  was  not  plenty  and  they  as  merchants  could  not  borrow 
at  the  banks  was  because  the  banks  were  lending  all  their 
money  to  the  Wall  Street  brokers,  and  now  that  Wall  Street 
was  in  trouble  they  would  be  able  to  borrow  all  they  wanted. 
This  was  the  general  public  sentiment.  The  merchants  little 
realized  what  was  the  difi'erence  between  marketing  securities 
and  marketing  dry  goods,  groceries,  or  hardware  in  their  stores. 
I  remember  trying  to  drive  this  idea  out  of  the  head  of  one 
merchant  who  was  congratulating  himself  on  the  fall  of  Wall 
Street  as  if  it  were  a  good  thing.     I  told  him  that  he  was 


30  H.  H.  PORTER 

laughing  over  his  own  grave  and  only  helping  to  dig  it 
deeper,  and  succeeded  in  disturbing  his  spirit  of  congratu- 
lation to  such  an  extent  that  he  went  down  town  the  next 
morning  and  canceled  all  his  unshipped  orders.  This  man 
often  laughed  with  me  afterwards  over  the  absurdity  of  the 
notions  he  then  held. 

The  method  of  relief  devised  by  the  Government  was  so 
weak  and  the  aid  which  it  gave  so  small  that  it  rather  aggra- 
vated the  trouble  than  helped  it.  An  order  was  given  to  buy 
for  the  Government  fourteen  million  dollars'  worth  of  govern- 
ment bonds  for  cash.  It  was  hoped  that  this  fourteen  million 
dollars  from  the  public  treasury  might  relieve  the  money 
market.  It  really  did  no  good,  but  to  a  large  extent  tied  up 
both  the  money  and  the  bonds.  Every  savings  bank  had  given 
notice  to  its  depositors,  as  it  had  a  right  to  do,  that  it  would 
honor  no  more  checks  except  after  sixty  days'  notice  of  inten- 
tion to  withdraw  funds.  One  of  the  important  savings  banks 
of  New  York  had  some  three  million  dollars'  worth  of  govern- 
ment bonds.  This  institution  was  about  the  first  applicant 
for  cash  in  exchange  for  bonds.  Monday  morning  its  officers 
appeared  at  the  subtreasury  in  New  York  with  its  three  mil- 
lion dollars'  worth  of  bonds  and  exchanged  them  for  cash.  No 
sooner  had  it  received  the  cash  than  its  president  remarked: 
"This  subtreasury  is  a  safer  place  to  keep  this  money  than  my 
vaults,  and  I  don't  propose  that  the  money  shall  be  used  for 
any  purpose  whatever  except  to  pay  my  depositors  who  shall 
give  me  the  sixty  days'  notice,"  from  that  time  locking  up  both 
the  money  and  the  bonds.  The  experience  with  that  savings 
bank  was  but  a  sample  of  the  uselessness  of  this  government 
aid.  Before  the  end  of  sixty  days  the  panic  was  over.  Those 
who  could  had  got  themselves  into  safe  financial  condition 
and  those  who  could  not  had  gone  to  the  wall.  By  that  time 
there  was  not  much  use  for  money,  and  the  dead  lull  that 
always  comes  after  such  a  time  began  to  make  interest  low. 
But  a  small  proportion  of  those  who  had  given  the  sixty  days' 
notice  of  intention  to  withdraw  from  savings  banks  ever  called 
for  their  money.     They  never  wanted  it,  but  were  afraid  the 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  31 

banks  were  going  to  fail,  and  when  satisfied  the  banks  were 
all  right  they  left  their  money  where  it  was. 

In  looking  back  at  the  causes  of  this  panic  it  was  plain 
to  see  that  everybody  had  been  buying  too  much.  Specu- 
lators in  Wall  Street  had  more  securities  than  they  could  pay 
for,  farmers  were  in  debt  for  lands  they  had  bought  too  much 
of,  and  merchants  had  more  goods  on  hand  than  could  be  con- 
sumed. The  general  realization  of  this  condition  carried  the 
whole  public  sentiment  to  the  other  extreme.  Loss  of  con- 
fidence in  everything  resulted.  It  was  only  in  1877  that  real 
estate,  manufactures,  and  general  securities  reached  their 
lowest  prices.  Then  commenced  again  the  upbuilding,  so 
that  in  1880  almost  everything  was  as  high  or  higher  than  it 
was  before  the  panic  of  1873.  The  same  general  conditions 
were  true  in  the  panic  of  1893.  Prices  reached  their  lowest 
in  1897  or  1898,  and  in  1900  and  1901  they  reached  their 
highest  point.  They  are  now  receding  and  we  are  having 
another  panic.  Thus  far  it  is  called  a  rich  man's  panic.  It 
affects  securities  both  industrial  and  railroad.  I  do  not  my- 
self believe  it  will  go  much  farther,  for  the  merchants  and 
farmers  do  not  seem  to  have  invested  in  the  securities  that  are 
now  shrinking.  They  will  feel  it  a  little,  as  it  will  have  a  ten- 
dency to  check  somewhat  the  consumption  of  their  products 
by  the  people  at  large. 

During  the  period  of  depression  following  the  panic  of 
1873,  I  began  to  buy  and  reorganize  bankrupt  railroads,  and 
in  these  enterprises  I  was  successful  owing  to  their  rapid  rise 
in  public  confidence.  One  incident  will  illustrate  how  values 
changed  for  the  better:  I  was  in  debt  to  a  certain  bank  about 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  for  which  it  held  real  estate 
security  that  in  ordinary  times  was  ample,  but  at  the  then 
prevailing  prices  proved  inadequate.  I  therefore  asked  the 
bank  to  take  as  additional  security  the  stock  which  I  held  in 
one  of  these  reorganized  railroads.  The  banker  replied  that 
he  doubted  whether  the  stock  was  worth  taking,  but  that  he 
would  store  it  to  accommodate  me.  Yet  a  few  years  later, 
when  times  had  restored  themselves  and  money  had  become 


32  H.  H.  PORTER 

easy,  the  market  value  of  these  railroad  stocks  on  the  New 
York  Stock  Exchange,  while  this  banker  still  held  them,  was 
something  over  nine  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

In  December,  1874,  the  West  Wisconsin  Railroad,  running 
from  Elroy,  Wisconsin,  to  Hudson,  Wisconsin,  was  about 
failing  to  pay  the  interest  on  its  bonds  due  January  i,  1875. 
This  prospective  failure  threatened  to  make  bankrupt  the 
principal  owners  of  the  stock  of  the  railroad.  I  happened  to 
be  in  New  York  at  that  time  and  the  holders  of  this  stock  urged 
me  to  purchase  the  whole  issue  for  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars and  to  reorganize  the  company.  I  beheved  that  it  would 
be  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Chicago  &  North  Western 
Railway,  of  which  I  was  then  an  active  director,  to  take  this 
railroad,  as  I  considered  it  an  important  connection.  As  there 
was  no  time  to  consult  the  other  directors,  my  associates  and 
I  purchased  the  railroad  on  our  own  account.  Having  done 
this  we  tendered  it  to  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway 
Company  at  the  price  we  paid,  believing  it  was  clearly  to  its 
interest  to  buy,  but  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  in  the 
directorate  of  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  proposed  purchase,  most  of  the  directors  thinking  they 
had  too  much  railroad  already.  We  therefore  retained  it 
ourselves  and  reorganized  it  into  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul  and 
MinneapoHs  Railway  Company.  A  Httle  later  we  purchased 
the  Stillwater  &  Taylor's  Falls  Railroad,  running  from  Hudson 
to  St.  Paul.  We  then  acquired  the  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City 
Railroad  and  the  Sioux  City  &  St.  Paul  Railroad,  these  two 
Hues  forming  the  railway  line  from  St.  Paul  to  Sioux  City,  and 
also  a  Hne  then  in  process  of  construction  from  the  west  bank 
of  the  Missouri  River  opposite  Sioux  City  to  Omaha  and  to 
Norfolk  in  Nebraska.  We  had  already  purchased  the  North 
Wisconsin  Railroad,  running  from  Hudson  northeast  and 
destined  for  Bayfield,  having  a  valuable  land  grant.  Of  this 
railroad  there  was  then  about  twenty  miles  crudely  built. 
The  North  Wisconsin  Railroad  we  later  extended  to  Bayfield 
and  Ashland  in  Wisconsin,  and  to  Duluth,  Minnesota. 

About  1880  we  consolidated  this  whole  system  into  the 


H.  H.  Porter 
1901 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  33 

Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Omaha  Railway,  of  which  I 
was  elected  the  first  president,  having  previously  been  president 
of  the  various  lines  forming  it.  In  1882  my  associates  and  I 
sold  our  stock  to  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway 
Company  and  I  retired  from  my  connection  with  the  Omaha 
system,  having  accomplished  my  object  and  being  very  tired. 
This  Omaha  system,  starting  with  the  West  Wisconsin  Rail- 
road with  only  about  one  hundred  and  ninety  miles  of  track, 
had  become  when  I  left  it  a  railroad  some  thirteen  hundred 
miles  in  length.  The  value  of  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Min- 
neapolis &  Omaha  stocks,  per  share,  are  now  between  two  and 
three  times  what  it  was  when  we  sold,  although  it  was  a  very 
successful  undertaking  for  us  financially,  but  one  that  required 
very  earnest,  hard,  continuous,  and  courageous  work.  We 
bought  all  the  railroads  forming  this  system  at  a  fortunate 
time,  as  it  was  one  of  great  depression,  and  soon  afterward  that 
section  of  the  country  became  the  popular  section  for  emigra- 
tion and  its  population  increased  rapidly. 

During  my  connection  with  the  Chicago  &  North  Western 
Railway  I  was  also  for  several  years  a  director  in  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

While  building  the  North  Wisconsin  Railroad,  which,  as 
well  as  the  West  Wisconsin  Railroad,  had  a  land  grant  in 
Wisconsin,  we  found  our  land  grants  in  conflict  with  those  of 
the  Farm  Mortgage  Company.  At  an  earlier  date  a  railroad 
from  Milwaukee  to  La  Crosse,  Wisconsin,  had  been  started, 
also  with  a  Wisconsin  land  grant.  To  furnish  means  to  build 
this  railroad  the  farmers  along  its  proposed  Hne  had  been  in- 
duced to  subscribe  to  its  stock,  paying  therefor  by  mortgages 
on  their  farms.  This  railroad  had  been  built  from  Milwaukee 
a  part  of  the  distance  toward  La  Crosse  (its  intended  western 
terminus)  when  it  failed,  in  consequence  of  which  the  farmers 
found  themselves  owners  of  valueless  railroad  stock  and  with 
their  farms  all  mortgaged.  Their  indignation  against  the 
railroad  and  its  officials  was  so  intense  that  they  defeated  every 
effort  in  the  Wisconsin  Legislature  to  secure  necessary  legis- 
lation to  reorganize  the  company  and  continue  its  railroad 


34  H.  H.  PORTER 

construction,  until  an  agreement  was  made  by  which  all  of 
the  land-grant  land  it  had  earned  in  the  construction  of  so 
much  of  the  railroad  as  had  been  built  should  be  given  to  a 
corporation  that  the  legislature  then  created,  called  "The 
Farm  Mortgage  Company,"  and  each  farmer  who  had  mort- 
gaged his  farm  was  given  his  proportion  of  the  total  stock  of 
this  company.  This  Farm  Mortgage  Company  Hngered 
along  from  that  time  until  about  1880,  selling  a  Httle  land  now 
and  then  and  expending  all  its  receipts  in  salaries  and  law- 
suits with  the  various  railroads  in  Wisconsin  having  con- 
flicting land  grants.  This  conflict  between  the  various  grants 
prevented  the  government  from  giving  title  to  any  of  these 
disputed  lands.  About  1880,  Philetus  Sawyer,  of  Oshkosh, 
Wisconsin,  and  I  purchased  all  the  stock  of  the  Farm  Mort- 
gage Company,  and  by  amicable  arrangement  the  land-grant 
claims  of  all  the  railroads  were  adjusted. 

About  this  time  it  was  realized  that  the  pine  lands  of  Wis- 
consin were  fast  being  depleted,  and  we  sold  our  lands  to  the 
lumber  men  of  Wisconsin  within  five  years  at  about  ten  times 
the  cost  to  us  of  the  land-grant  stock.  Yet  probably  every 
farmer  was  better  off"  to  sell  his  stock  than  to  continue,  as  they 
were  bound  to  do,  fighting  in  the  courts  and  accomplishing 
nothing.  Without  some  such  adjustment,  I  think  millions 
of  acres  of  land  in  Wisconsin,  now  occupied,  would  have  been 
tied  up  in  litigation  to  this  day,  that  part  of  the  state  could  not 
have  been  settled,  and  the  railroads  would  have  been  deprived 
of  much  of  their  subsequent  business  and  earnings. 

While  I  was  president  of  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
&  Omaha  system,  my  associates  and  I  purchased  the  St.  Paul 
&  Duluth  Railroad,  running  from  St.  Paul  to  Duluth,  then  con- 
sidered almost  valueless,  Duluth  being  at  that  time  in  its 
greatest  depression.  In  the  improved  times  which  followed 
we  sold  that  railroad,  and,  while  we  made  a  handsome  profit, 
the  appreciation  of  the  stock  since  has  been  three  or  four  times 
what  we  sold  it  for. 

About  1880  the  owners  of  the  Minneapolis  &  St.  Louis  Rail- 
road became  involved  and  we  purchased  its  control.     The 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  35 

market  In  New  York  became  so  buoyant  that  we  sold  out  within 
a  few  months,  again  about  doubHng  our  money.  The  value 
of  that  stock  has  since  been  two  or  three  times  what  we  sold  it 
for. 

When  I  parted  with  my  interest  in  railroads  in  that  section, 
it  was  my  intention  to  retire  from  business  in  the  West  and 
take  up  my  residence  in  New  York  City;  but  another  depres- 
sion coming  on,  I  delayed  and  began  building  a  home  on  the 
corner  of  Cass  and  Erie  streets  in  Chicago,  my  family  now  con- 
sisting of  my  wife  and  myself,  our  daughter  Katharine,  born  in 
Syracuse,  New  York,  on  the  17th  day  of  September,  1866,  and 
our  sons  Henry  H.,  Jr.,  born  in  Chicago  on  the  23d  day  of 
January,  1876,  and  George  F.,  born  in  Chicago  on  the  26th 
day  of  July,  1881. 

Being  joined  again  by  the  same  friends  with  whom  I  had 
been  so  long  and  so  pleasantly  associated,  we  with  others  pur- 
chased the  Union  Steel  Company  of  Chicago,  a  corporation 
that  had  failed  and  was  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver,  expended  a 
large  sum  of  money  in  restoring  it,  and  made  it  a  vigorous  in- 
dustry. This  steel  company  we  afterwards  consolidated  with 
the  North  Chicago  RolHng  Mill  Company  (another  large  steel 
manufacturing  company)  and  a  large  steel  manufacturing 
company  located  at  JoHet,  Illinois,  under  the  name  of  the 
Illinois  Steel  Company. 

Through  interest  in  these  steel  companies  we  were  natu- 
rally brought  into  contact  with  the  producers  of  iron  ore,  and 
in  connection  with  others  we  purchased  and  developed  an  im- 
portant iron  mine  known  as  the  Chandler  Mine  in  Minnesota 
on  the  Vermillion  Range  north  of  Lake  Superior.  There 
already  existed  a  railroad  from  Duluth  and  Two  Harbors  to 
Tower,  with  iron  mines  at  Tower,  and  this  railroad  with  its 
mines  we  bought  and  extended  a  branch  to  the  Chandler  Mine. 
We  now  had  steel  works,  iron  mines,  and  a  railroad  in  Minne- 
sota from  the  mines  to  Lake  Superior.  This  necessitated 
steamers  on  Lake  Superior  to  transport  the  iron  ore  to  Chicago 
for  the  mills  of  the  Illinois  Steel  Company.  These  we  had 
built.     We  also  bought  large  coal  mines  and  coke  furnaces  in 


36  H.  H.  PORTER 

Pennsylvania.  Two  or  three  years  later,  with  the  discovery 
of  iron  ore  on  the  Mesaba  Range,  we  built  a  branch  of  this 
Duluth  &  Iron  Range  Railroad  into  that  range.  We  were  now 
producers  of  much  more  iron  of  certain  classes  than  the  Illinois 
Steel  Company  required,  and  consequently  became  large 
sellers  to  other  companies,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
the  Carnegie  Steel  Company  of  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 
This  company  had  grown  to  such  an  extent  that  it  had  deter- 
mined to  be  the  owner  and  producer  of  its  own  ore  for  con- 
sumption, and  the  question  in  our  minds  was:  Where  were 
the  customers  for  our  ore  to  come  from  ? 

Reasoning  that  if  steel  and  iron  mills  were  going  to  own 
iron  and  coal  mines,  coke  ovens,  and  iron  furnaces,  then  it 
became  necessary  for  iron  mines  to  own  coal  mines,  coke  ovens, 
and  iron  furnaces,  and  believing  this  to  be  true,  we  decided  to 
organize  a  corporation  to  own  the  stock  of  these  various  com- 
panies and  thereby  to  have  one  controlling  power  for  producing 
iron  and  steel  from  the  ore  to  the  finished  product.  For  this 
control  the  Federal  Steel  Company  was  organized  in  Septem- 
ber, 1898,  of  the  board  of  which  I  became  chairman.  The 
business  was  prosperous  and  the  form  of  organization  became 
popular  for  controUing  various  other  iron  industries.  About 
two  years  later  the  success  of  this  method  resulted,  through 
various  stages,  in  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  now  the 
largest  corporation  in  the  world,  and  on  its  formation  I  retired 
from  active  connection  with  iron  and  steel  industries. 

During  the  time  I  was  interested  in  the  Illinois  Steel  and 
Minnesota  Iron  companies  some  associates  and  I,  realizing  that 
Chicago,  the  largest  port  on  the  Great  Lakes,  had  no  place  for 
building  or  repairing  steel  vessels,  organized  the  Chicago 
Ship  Building  Company,  with  a  plant  at  South  Chicago,  where 
a  few  large  steel  steamboats  were  built.  A  dry  dock  for  repair- 
ing was  later  added.  This  company  was  finally  consolidated 
with  the  American  Ship  Building  Company  that  now  controls 
nearly  all  the  ship  yards  on  the  Great  Lakes. 

About  the  year  1883  the  Chicago  and  Southwestern  Rail- 
road was  being  constructed  from  Fair  Oaks,  a  station  about 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  37 

sixty  miles  from  Chicago,  on  the  Chicago,  Indianapolis  & 
Louisville  Railroad  (known  as  the  Monon),  to  Brazil,  Indiana. 
This  railroad  became  embarrassed  and  one  of  its  creditors  was 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  of  which  I  was  still  a 
director,  and  this  induced  my  associates  and  myself  to  purchase 
all  the  bonds  of  this  railroad  and  reorganize  it  into  the  Chicago 
&  Indiana  Coal  Railway.  We  extended  it  south  to  Brazil  and 
north  to  La  Crosse,  Indiana,  and  made  an  agreement  with  the 
Monon  that  the  business  of  the  road  should  pass  between  Fair 
Oaks  and  Chicago  over  that  part  of  the  Monon  Railroad,  the 
agreement  providing  that  each  railroad  should  be  kept  in  as 
good  physical  condition  and  be  as  able  to  do  the  joint  business 
as  the  other.  The  Monon  Railroad  was  poor  and  its  manage- 
ment very  indifferent.  They  could  not  do  the  business  we 
gave  them  and  would  not  improve  the  property  so  that  they 
might  do  so. 

To  protect  ourselves  we  bought  the  Chicago  &  Eastern 
Illinois  Railroad,  having  then  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  track,  and  after  connecting  our  two  railroads  by 
building  from  Percy  Junction  to  Momence,  we  consolidated 
the  two  into  the  Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois  Railroad.  The 
business  of  this  railway  increased  so  fast  that  we  double- 
tracked  it  from  Chicago  to  Danville.  From  that  point  we  had 
a  branch  running  about  forty  miles  southwest  to  Tuscola. 
This  we  extended  to  Joppa  on  the  Ohio  River  and  to  Thebes 
on  the  Mississippi  River,  also  building  some  short  branches 
from  various  points.  At  Thebes  there  is  now  being  built,  in 
connection  with  the  other  railroads  reaching  the  Mississippi 
at  that  point,  a  double  track  steel  bridge  over  the  river.  This 
was  commenced  in  1901. 

In  the  Autumn  of  1902  I  sold  out  my  interest  in  this  rail- 
road, then  over  seven  hundred  miles  long,  to  the  St.  Louis  & 
San  Francisco  Railroad  Company,  and  have  now  practically 
retired  from  active  steam-railroad  interests. 

In  January,  1896,  Mrs.  Porter,  our  son  George,  and  I 
went  to  Egypt  and  up  the  Nile,  returning  through  Italy  and 
France,  being  absent  from  Chicago  about  four  months.     This 


38  H.  H.  PORTER 

was  the  only  time  I  crossed  the  Atlantic  for  pleasure.  I  had 
been  over  for  a  few  weeks  in  1873  on  financial  business  for  the 
Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  Company,  and  again  to 
accompany  my  family  home  in  1874. 

From  my  coming  to  Chicago  in  1853  until  last  year  I  was 
almost  continuously  interested  in  the  construction  of  railroads 
tributary  to  Chicago.  When  I  commenced,  the  frontier  might 
be  considered  as  beginning  seventy-five  miles  west  of  Chicago. 
There  was  then  no  railroad  reaching  the  Mississippi  River, 
and  none  between  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  or  Chicago  and  Mil- 
waukee. Now  six  railroads  cross  the  continent  to  the  Pacific 
and  others  are  building. 

Since  1880  I  have  never  taken  a  salary  for  any  position 
which  I  have  held,  preferring  independence  and  trusting  for 
my  compensation  to  the  investment  I  had  in  those  corporations 
of  which  I  was  from  time  to  time  an  official.  At  this  date  I  am 
not  prepared  to  say  that  this  poHcy  was  wise  or  just  to  myself, 
but  I  preferred  it,  and  as  I  look  back  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am 
any  poorer  for  it.  Yet  I  have  been  constantly  president  or 
chairman  of  the  various  corporations  in  which  I  have  been 
interested  and  have  constantly  devoted  my  whole  time  to  their 
management  and  well-being. 

Henry  Seibert  is  the  only  one  of  our  original  associates 
now  Hving  who  was  interested  in  each  of  our  undertakings 
from  its  inception.  The  others  continuously  interested  during 
their  lives  in  all  our  undertakings  were  Roswell  P.  Flower  of 
New  York,  who  during  our  connection  became  a  member  of 
Congress,  Governor  of  New  York,  and  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant financial  men  in  Wall  Street;  John  F.  Tracy,  David 
Dows,  Benjamin  Brewster,  and  D.  O.  Mills  of  New  York; 
P.  L.  Cable  of  Rock  Island,  Illinois;  and  Philetus  Sawyer  of 
Oshkosh,  Wisconsin,  who  during  this  time  became  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  where  he  was  one  of  its  most 
useful  members.  He  was  interested  with  us  in  all  the  railroads 
consoHdated  into  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  MinneapoHs  &  Omaha 
Railroad.  Heber  R.  Bishop  of  New  York  was  another  very 
largely  interested  with  us  in  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company 


A  SHORT  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  39 

and  in  the  consolidation  of  the  Union,  North  Chicago,  and  Joliet 
steel  companies.  R.  R.  Cable  of  Rock  Island,  was  also  inter- 
ested with  us  in  many  of  these  enterprises.  They  were  all  men 
familiar  with  the  West,  having  traveled  over  it  extensively  and 
frequently,  watching  its  growth  and  realizing  its  possibilities. 

No  one  of  our  undertakings  resulted  in  failure,  and  this  I 
attribute  to  the  confidence  in  the  honesty,  courage,  fair-dealing, 
and  unselfishness  of  each  toward  all  others.  They  cared 
more,  as  I  did,  that  the  enterprises  we  engaged  in  should  be 
successful  and  creditable  than  for  the  money  that  might  be 
made.  I  do  not  remember  a  single  one  of  these  undertakings 
that  many  of  our  more  conservative  friends  did  not  predict 
would  bankrupt  me  and  involve  my  associates  in  such  losses 
as  would  cause  them  to  regret  being  interested. 

These  various  enterprises  originated  with  mis,  and  after 
they  were  undertaken,  no  matter  how  much  trouble  we  found 
in  accomplishing  them  (and  we  had  plenty  of  it),  my  associates 
never  complained  but  always  courageously  gave  their  fullest 
confidence  and  sustained  them  with  their  money  and  advice. 
I  attribute  my  success  principally  to  my  fortunate  association 
with  these  gentlemen.  They  never  failed  to  trust  me  or 
cordially  to  advise  and  co-operate  in  all  my  suggestions.  The 
close  friendship  of  those  who  have  passed  away  continued 
throughout  their  lives.     With  those  living  it  still  exists. 

Some  three  years  before  the  death  of  Roswell  P.  Flower, 
he  with  others  consoHdated  into  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit 
Railroad  Company  nearly  all  of  the  street  and  elevated  rail- 
ways of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  and  was  engaged  until  his  death 
in  working  out  its  problems.  After  his  sudden  death  I  became 
a  director,  at  the  request  of  his  associates  in  the  enterprise, 
and  have  since  been  continuously  interested.  It  is  a  large 
problem,  and,  although  it  has  been  a  very  speculative  stock  on 
the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  I  believe  that  within  a  few 
years,  from  the  natural  growth  of  that  part  of  the  city  tributary 
to  it,  it  will  work  out  creditably  and  profitably.* 

*  Mr.  Porter's  prediction  as  to  the  success  of  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit  Com- 
pany has  been  fully  realized. 


40  H.  H.  PORTER 

About  ten  years  ago  a  company  was  organized  which 
purchased  some  four  thousand  acres  of  land  near  the  city 
Hmits  of  Chicago  in  the  townships  of  Stickney  and  Lyons, 
intending  to  estabhsh  warehouses,  stock  yards,  and  a  freight 
yard  system  and  to  concentrate  these  kinds  of  business  there. 
But  Httle  was  done  with  it  until  some  three  years  ago  when 
my  associates  and  I  purchased  the  property,  and  we  have  during 
the  last  two  years  built,  I  think,  the  largest  freight  yards  with 
the  most  modern  improvements  in  the  country,  and  are  pa- 
tiently working  toward  carrying  out,  though  in  a  different  way, 
the  original  conception. 

In  this  one  as  in  many  of  our  undertakings,  we  have  per- 
haps been  ahead  of  the  times.  I  think  I  can  see  that  the  rail- 
roads and  the  public  begin  to  realize  how  useful  and  necessary 
to  the  growth  of  Chicago  and  the  West  these  yards  are.  If 
successful,  I  shall  count  them  the  last  of  my  successes;  if  not, 
my  first  important  failure. 


About  the  time  of  Mr.  Porter's  death,  March  31,  1910, 
the  leading  minds  of  Chicago  and  the  railroad  interests  began 
fully  to  appreciate  the  need  and  value  to  both  the  railroads 
and  to  Chicago  of  a  freight  center  and  yards  as  contemplated 
and  constructed  by  Mr.  Porter  and  his  associates.  On  October 
2,  191 2,  twelve  of  the  leading  railway  companies  of  Chicago 
purchased  these  yards,  through  the  agency  of  the  Belt  Railway 
Company  of  Chicago,  and,  after  constructing  large  additions  to 
the  property,  in  June,  1915,  put  it  into  operation.  The  results 
have  proven  more  than  satisfactory,  thus  making  this  property, 
to  use  Mr,  Porter's  expression,  "a  clearing  house  for  the  freight 
traffic  of  the  Chicago  district."  This  brings  to  a  successful 
completion  his  last  undertaking  in  just  the  way  Mr.  Porter 
always  planned,  and  in  a  way  that  would  have  been  most  satis- 
factory to  him. 


THE  FOLLOWING  PICTURES 
ILLUSTRATE  THE  GROWTH  OF 
CHICAGO  AND  OF  SOME  OF  THE 
DEVELOPMENTS  WITH  WHICH 
MR.  PORTER  WAS  CONNECTED 


iSigi^^iil 

<2q 

hlMi 

11 

of 

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■s-s 

ii 

f  u 


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-73    O     N 

2  '"a 

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rt      .    ^ 

u°2  S 


ca 


Second  station,  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  Railroad  (afterwards  C.  &  N.  W. 

Ry.);  completed  in  1853.    This  building  fronted  on  Wells 

Street  a  little  south  of  Kinzie  Street. 


Fourth  station  of  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway,  completed  in  igii 
Corner  of  Madison  and  Canal  streets. 


2  ^ 

0^     r; 


JC^ 


^  '^  .-^^^  I  Til  |M« 


Removing  Snow  by  Hand 


.J^ 


Rotary  Snow  Plow  at  Work 

Methods  of  handling  snow  on  the  Chicago  &  North  Western  Railway  in 
the  early  days  and  in  1910. 


^^^) 


Chicago  in  1853,  from  an  old  drawing  in  possessioi 
Air.  Porter  became 


I3"<fi^; 


Chicago  in  1913.     Substantially  the  same  view  of  Chic, 
growth  of  the  city  during  his  active  busir 


'"^'^K 


HE  CHICAGO   HISTORICAL  SOCIET 


f  the  Chicago  Historical  Society.    This  was  the  year 
I  resident  of  Chicago. 


,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Porter's  death  in  1910,  showing  the 
career  over  a  period  of  fifty-seven  years. 


i866 


IQIO 

Intersection  of  Randolph  Street  and  Illinois  Central  Railroad, 
looking  south. 


1 866 


^^■a^^TH^^ 

^Jl 

Ife-.^ 

jMg 

^^^ 

^^^P^S 

BS 

f?f^W^3 

^Mt^ 

,i/yd 

g0 

I9I0 

Intersection  of  Park  Row  and  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  looking  north. 


i866 


BY  COURTESY  OF  THE  CHICAGO   HISTORIC 


I9IO 

Looking  north  on  State  Street  from  Madison  Street. 


Ruins  of  First  National  Bank  Building,  south- 
west corner  of  State  and  Washington 
streets,  after  the  great  fire  of  1871. 


:^ 


T<} 


I 


^r 


"IPs  „  , 


'^J^fM 


P'ourth  Building  of  the  First  National  Bank,  corner  of  Dearborn  and 
Monroe  streets,  completed  in  1905. 


Length,  280  ft. 


Built  in  1888. 
Carrying  capacity, 


2300  gross  tons. 


Built  in  1910. 
Length,  580  ft.     Carrying  capacity,  12000  gross  tons. 

Great  Lakes  ore  carriers  typical  of  their  times. 


,  1 


J^^cihir^U  f  .  Jlf'^^^^ 


Corner  of  Harrison  and  Dearborn  streets,  lookin 


COURTESY  OF  THE  CHICAGO  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


Drth,  immediately  after  the  Chicago  fire  in  1871. 


Union   S 
The  earlv  view  is  from  the 


[[O 

sick  Yards 
int  "x"  in  the  later  picture. 


Entrance  to  the  Calumet  Ri 


^ii" 


r,  South  Chicago,  looking  west. 


Seta 


Plats  showing  the  growth  of  the  downtown  terminals  of  the  Lake  Shoi 


Michigan  Southern  and  the  Rock  Island  Railways,  from  1865  to  1910. 


ENGRAVED  AND  PRINTED  BY 
R.  R.  DONNELLEY  AND  SONS 
COMPANY  AT  THE  LAKESIDE 
PRESS  :  :  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


■Hi 


x""**^^"" 


